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Rodel N. Casio

Quality Time with Family and Friends –Potluck Dinner Night
6 months ago

Gathering together for food is among the most pleasurable times for children, teenagers, and adults alike. Because of this, planning a monthly potluck event can be an engaging experience for your community members: it also helps your community members get better acquainted with each other.

Planning the event

When planning a potluck event for a large number of guests – it’s essential to plan wisely and well in advance. Decide your theme, venue, and timing for the event.

Suitable locations for a potluck event on your property could be a community center, BBQ area, or community park.

Notifying residents about the event

Informing members about the event, at least two weeks in advance, will ensure better participation. Emails and Facebook event invitations can be sent your community members or you can notify them through handouts dropped at your resident’s homes.

***TIP*** SignUpGenius is a handy website for organizing group events. It provides an RSVP sign up format. Moreover, it can help in collecting information regarding numbers of people attending, guest names, and what people will bring along all in the same place.

Assigning duties and tasks

Once you’ve decided the time, date and place, the next step is to gather volunteers to make the dishes according to the decided theme. It will be necessary to let the volunteers know about the approximate number of people who would be attending the event, so that food preparation, utensils, plates, cups, etc. can be collected accordingly.

Residents that are not as confident about their cooking skills can be tasked with managing additional things such as utensils, dishes, beverages, décor, and cleanup.

It’s important to understand that events like these are only successful when residents are enthusiastic and have a good team spirit. Therefore, as part of managing the event, it’s important to make the event interesting for all ages. Events can be made even more fun and interesting through the use of themes, organizing music, and other activities such as a complementary movie to go with the theme.

To manage a successful potluck event Perfect Potluck is another wonderful resource. It will let you select a meal coordinator, enter the venue of event, assign volunteers for all the dishes, and also notify members about which services they can still sign up to complete.

***BONUS*** To make the event even more exciting, participants can also be asked to dress up in costume according to the potluck theme.

Challenge ingredient which must be present in every dish (e.g., cauliflower or potatoes.)

Movie theme. Select a movie and establish the food to go with it. (e.g. If you choose the animated movie Ratatouille, you can select French Cuisine.)

Breakfast for supper. This theme can include deviled eggs, waffles, pancakes etc.

Finger Foods.

No matter what the theme selected, the general idea of the event is for the participants to have fun and enjoy themselves. Therefore, it’s important to go with the mood of the people participating. It’s also important to communicate with your residents and let residents communicate with each other. This will keep the event is well-synchronized.

***TIP*** Help participants connect with each other, by creating a Facebook Event each month where they can discuss décor, give ideas, and notify each other of their contributions. You can also create a community group on Facebook in which residents can discuss the upcoming potluck events.

8 months ago

Just had this last month with only 1 resident trying it. This property I am at hardly had any monthly events and residents are used to it being this way. Now to break the mold!